This is in the category of spontaneous, random thoughts, philosophical musings and generalizations — essentially the way my mind usually works.
A long time ago the industrial revolution hit and people flocked from the countryside to get jobs in the cities. The cities had factories and needed laborers, usually unskilled, so “things” could be made. The pay was low and the risk of getting injured or killed was high, but it helped put food (if you consider porridge “food”) on the table if you didn’t have an education or a trade. It was rough, and the owners didn’t give a rat’s ass what happened to you — work ’til you die, and then you’re replaced. What happens to your family? God will provide. And God did provide.
God revealed to the grimy working grunts that they could get together with other grunts and “strike” at the owners for better pay and working conditions. And after many bloody and sometimes deadly confrontations they started getting what they were demanding. It wasn’t heaven, but at least it was no longer hell. Yes, I’m convinced the average unskilled laborer exists in a perpetual state of purgatory. Why? Who knows … maybe paying for “sins” from a past life. Anyway …
The problem with this new collective is that it had leaders, yeah, those people, and the problem with leaders is they like power. So, what did they do? They convinced the grunts they shouldn’t be satisfied with purgatory, that they deserved to be in heaven itself — yeah, because they work so hard, or maybe just because they were born here. Well, lo and behold, these grunts actually started getting pieces of heaven, like REALLY good wages, so much so that the owners felt THEY should get together and protect THEMSELVES from what was starting to harm THEM. So, what did they do? They started closing factories and moving them to places where the workers were still in hell. Boy, you showed them, didn’t you? And then some guy named Donald Trump came along and took advantage of THAT scenario. Whatever.
But there’s a moral to this story. I highly recommend the book “The Magic Fish,” by Freya Littledale, for the moral, to anyone who thinks that unions STILL want what’s best for America.
Arthur Saginian
Santa Clarita
